Reva on sale at autojunction

Well buying a new car from now on, is just a click away, courtesy autojunction, the auto division of the largest e-commerce company of the country, mjunction, which today announced its "auto eRetailing" venture.

It would be the first of its kind in the country, where a new car can be bought over the internet at any time of the day or night, from home.

"www.autojunction.in brings in a complete end-to-end car buying experience over the internet for buyers of new car in India," said Viresh Oberoi, managing director of mjunction services.

The company has tied up with Bangalore-based Reva Car Electric Company (RECC) as its first auto e-retail partner to sell the Reva electric car through a customised version of its auto e-retail model.

The company is in talks with two leading auto majors of the country and is most likely to have an agreement signed with each one of them at the earliest possible.

Oberoi said, "Auto e-retailing by autojunction, like mjunction's all other preceding ventures, would transform the supply chain. In its implementation, it would permeate values like cost and distribution efficiency, convenience and transparency in the entire supply chain from the car manufacturer to the end customer effectively disintermediating value destroying middle men."

Prior to launching this venture, the company had been selling used vehicles over the internet through its Online Auto Auctions.

"Most of the leading banks and the NBFCs across the country are using the on line auction services for the last two years," he added.

The autojunction has auctioned 14,359 vehicles with a transactional turnover of Rs 39 crore in the first nine months of its operations.

The business value of mjunction, a 50:50 joint venture of Sail and Tata Steel, in terms of transaction has been Rs 8,053 crore in the current financial year, registering a growth of 144 percent.

The company is eying business of around Rs 12,000 crore by the end of this fiscal.

C K Maini, deputy chairman and chief technical officer of RECC, said, "This the first time that a virtual showroom is being set up by mjunction to sell vehicles on line and we are confident that this venture would add value to our customers in Kolkata and the rest of the country."

Since the commercialisation of Reva in 2001, the company has rolled out 2200 cars in Bangalore and London; the two cities in which it has been operational.

"In London we have sold about 950 cars in the last two years, all of which were transacted through the internet," he added.

The company has capacity of 6000 cars annually and it plans to increase it to 30,000 per year in a year.

"We have raised some funds through the private equity and possibly our capacity would increase to 30,000 a year," Maini said.

The price of the cars have been fixed between Rs 3.99 lakh "� 4.96 lakh and the company is hopeful of selling 200-300 cars in the next one year at Kolkata.